ABSTRACT
Forages are the primary self-produced feed resources of ruminants. To minimize feeding costs and cover animal requirements while protecting the environment, NIR spectroscopy is a wonderful tool to evaluate quickly and efficiently the quality of forage. Indeed, the forage composition can be accurately determined by NIR analysis to help farmers and nutritionists make the best choices in terms of profitability, animal welfare, and protection of the natural environment. For years, NIR analyses on dry and ground samples have been performed in laboratories with a performance generally similar to what we can obtain with reference methods in accordance with ISO standards. Today, thanks to the evolution of the technology, forage analysis can be performed at the farm with hand-held NIR instruments and applied directly on wet samples. The complexity of the measurement is related to the heterogeneity of the samples, but the results so far are encouraging. While it is only the beginning, the sample will no longer go to the laboratory, but the analysis will occur directly at the field.
Preamble
The Walloon Agricultural Research Centre (CRA-W) located in Gembloux, Belgium, maintains numerous contacts with farmers and horticulturists, companies, universities, and Belgian and foreign research centers. CRA-W is involved in various European, national, and regional research projects. Among many other initiatives, CRA-W has focused on promoting expertise in near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) since the 1980s. This chapter is mainly based on the knowledge and experience accrued by CRA-W after almost 40 years of NIRS forage analyses. The content of this section is quite technical and aims to provide clear and practical information to anyone interested in forage analysis.
